MEXICANA

I didn’t know much about Mexican culture and besides drug stories my ideas about Mexico were somehow influenced by television. In that specific case the reason why I went to Mexico was visiting my sister who had moved there six months before.

When I was about eleven years old a famous Italian iced tea brand started producing a series of commercials based on Mexico. In these commercials there were always some Mexican people wearing huge “sombreros” and other people begging them to work. At first they would refuse any request because all they wanted to do was chill all day long but they would soon change their minds when somebody would offer them some of that “unique” Italian iced tea. So they would say “Pedro esto es Estathé!” and then they would do anything to get some. The language they spoke was often a terrible mix of Italian and a bunch of invented Spanish words. The settings were beautiful, Mexico was represented as the quietest place on earth and Mexicans appeared to be the laziest people in the world. I got to Mexico City with my father on December 2012 and all my first impressions were totally different from my expectations. I spent the first week without taking a single picture until all of a sudden Mexico started seeming not much more different from Sicily. It was something about the people, the places and that strange feeling of being at home.